


Funeral March

by Minor_Coon



Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Character Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:02:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22446088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minor_Coon/pseuds/Minor_Coon
Summary: L is bothered by the sensation that this building is both his tomb and his tombstone. Post-Yotsuba Arc.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	Funeral March

L is awake too early, for no good reason, for the first time since the chain came off his wrist. It is true that good reasons for rising early were abundant when he was chained, of which the most usual was to annoy Light-kun.

He is not awake because his thoughts have become clearer. He is awake because his mind will not let him sleep. Images are resounding in his head, in a torrent that is all the more terrible for its utter silence. He had come upon a shinigami in the dark, but when it turned he saw that it had Light's face. Light was screaming, his eye bulging and his neck stretched taut, but no sound left his mouth. L, waking with his mouth open, had fancied that the darkness was silently screaming as well.

Mostly, L is bothered by the feeling that this building is both his tomb and his tombstone. Possibly, he has invested a lot of time and money into building an elaborate cage to die in. Also probably, he has in general invested a lot of time and money into dying elaborately. At least it would not be messy. 

He trusts Kira that much.

He should trust himself a little more, perhaps, but there is a shinigami floating inside his walls like a bouquet of funeral flowers already wilting on his grave.

L breathes in and out, counting the seconds. It's ridiculous, how the walls seem to be closing in on him. He's never been in the least bit claustrophobic. Maybe it's the time that's pressing down on him and choking him at the base of his neck. He has never felt closer to an inmate on death row, except that inmates on death row have more time. 

That, and they deserve it.

He doesn't have to check the surveillance to know that Kira is sleeping soundly. Like a baby. Like a mass-murderer. Kira breathes steadily and rhythmically, like he is counting-out seconds. 

Like he is counting down.

The cold is seeping up through L's bare feet. Watari is either being cheap, or he is keeping the floor cold at night on purpose, in the hope that this will induce L not to leave bed at inconvenient times. L dips his head in recognition of Watari's noble and doomed efforts to make L into something that resembles a functional person.

Recently, L has been doing a lot of pretending. He has pretended to have colleagues. He has pretended to have friends. He has pretended to trust Light. All this pretending has been confusing and upsetting, and in it he has lost track of whether he was pretending to be surprised when Light looked up at him with Kira's eyes.

L stops, rubbing the chilly underside of his foot against his leg. The building is a tomb. He sees that now. Ryuzaki and Light are the ones buried here.

Perhaps he should have mourned them.


End file.
